At that moment, at the dungeon entrance.
“My lord. It seems they have no intention of coming out this way.”
“.......”
Baron Gilbert stood at the dungeon entrance, accompanied by the chairman of the Merchants’ Association, Knight Philip, and several men with intimidating faces.
“Shouldn’t we get some kind of response if we wait a little longer?”
“It is getting late. I will order the men to stand by. Let us return to the lord’s castle.”
“Hmm....”
By then, the darkness had vanished, and the sun was beginning to rise above the horizon.
“As we discussed beforehand, let us present this sortie as a personal reconnaissance mission undertaken to rescue Sir Jake.”
“Do you think they will notice our mark?”
“They will. Wasn’t it they who started this in the first place?”
The chairman scratched the back of his hand with his fingernail, pretending to write something.
“They strip the humans. When they see the writing, they will understand our intentions. For the time being, I will search the slave markets for slaves who can be tattooed without issue.”
“I’ll leave it to you. Ah, Sir Philip.”
The baron extended a hand toward Knight Philip, who stood silently with a stiff expression.
“Bear this in mind. We are not trading with the Demon King’s army.”
“That is....”
“We are merely complying with their demands because we have no choice if we want to keep Sir Jake alive. Yes. We are being blackmailed. Blackmailed. Do you understand?”
Just who was blackmailing whom?
Sir Philip wanted to ask that very question, but despite being shorter than him, Baron Gilbert was pressing down on his shoulder with one hand, leaving Philip no choice but to swallow.
“If you want to receive a title yourself, you need to work hard, too. You have sufficient skill, but aren’t you lacking in wealth?”
Because of the difference in status.
“If you were to give your parents back home the greatest gift of all, it would be obtaining a baronetcy and becoming a noble knight. And if I am to sponsor you, I will need a great deal of money.”
“Is Sir Jake even still alive?”
“Heh heh.”
The baron laughed, patting the knight’s shoulder with his hand.
“If we believe he is alive, then he must be alive.”
“.......”
“But we cannot simply offer a million gold pieces to the Demon King’s army. You know the story of the Margraviate of Alexandra, don’t you? The story of how they offered up the margraviate’s budget to save their only daughter, only for that same budget to return as the golem that destroyed their territory.”
“It was thirty years ago already, though....”
“History repeats itself. Should I risk allowing our people to suffer for Jake’s sake?”
“.......”
“Think of your parents, Sir Philip.”
Sir Philip quietly closed his eyes.
“I’ll leave the management of this place to you. The dungeon will be sealed off. From now on, we will establish a thoroughly fortified position centered around this clearing to deal with any enemies emerging from within.”
“A fortress....”
“One of the most basic strategies for dealing with the Demon King’s army when they emerge from a cave.”
“Even if we build a fortress and station guards here, we will not be able to stop adventurers from entering the dungeon, my lord.”
“Then we should let them enter, Sir Philip.”
The chairman of the Merchants’ Association stroked his mustache and grinned.
“They will be risking their lives to save Sir Jake Gilbert. Wouldn’t it be fair to say that their courage is akin to that of a hero?”
“What matters is that it works out well.”
The baron gave a faint smile as he echoed the chairman’s words.
“One person, one vial.”
At the baron’s words, Sir Philip tilted his head for a moment before recalling the terms of the negotiation.
“He said to use one vial of aphrodisiac per person. The calculations of demons are truly vicious. A person’s value is one vial of aphrodisiac.”
Wasn’t he saying to use one vial on one person?
The question rose to the very tip of Sir Philip’s tongue, but—
“It is time. If any people come out of the dungeon, or if any demons appear, inform me immediately.”
“Yes, my lord.”
The baron began preparing to leave, and Philip did not have time to say it.
“Um, then how long am I supposed to...?”
“I will send soldiers as soon as I reach the lord’s castle. Until then, guard this place alone. If things become dangerous, you may run to the lord’s castle.”
“Alone....”
It was not as though it particularly mattered, and there was no need to make an issue of it—
“...Yes, understood. I will follow your orders.”
There was no reason to stir up trouble for nothing by saying such a thing.
Whoosh.
After the baron, the chairman, and the chairman’s dark-underworld guards who had been standing at his side disappeared—
“Goddess.”
Sir Philip clasped his hands and prayed toward the sky.
Dark clouds gradually began to gather overhead.
* * *
The contract between Baron Gilbert and the demon Dandelion.
In the future, it would go down in history as the Blake–Azazel Secret Pact.
‘It qualifies as a secret pact, right?’
It was a top-secret matter known only to those directly involved.
The number of people aware of it was extremely limited, and the moment it was spoken of outside that circle, the secret pact would be over.
‘But if you examine it carefully, Baron Gilbert is the only one who loses out in the end.’
The Vampire Legion had nothing to lose.
The Vampire Legion only had to cut me loose, and even if they actually did so, all they had to do was eliminate the demon Dandelion.
The negotiations failed?
‘Then I’ll simply continue working as a trainer.’
A project that had gone so far as to put a bomb collar around my neck—what if the negotiations ended in failure?
Trainer Azazel would no longer step forward publicly to negotiate with humans, nor appear before the enemy claiming to be the demon Dandelion.
Even if I did step forward, it would not be easy to overcome the perception that I was ‘the one who failed last time.’
But Baron Gilbert was different.
I was bearing the risks as a low-ranking officer of the legion known as the demon Dandelion, but Baron Gilbert was bearing the risks not only as a baron, but as a human being.
Why was he going this far?
Obviously.
“The aphrodisiac’s effect is incredible.”
Because the aphrodisiac produced by our aphrodisiac slimes was that excellent.
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud.
The man vigorously thrust his hips.
There was not a trace of consideration in his movements.
He was so passionate that one might think he had contracted an illness that would kill him if he did not climax immediately.
“Ah, ahh! I like it! More, more!!”
Even the woman he was with was no different.
Both of them had already been senseless by the time they entered the dungeon, but the woman’s condition was particularly severe.
They were currently addicted to the aphrodisiac.
The vial had not been returned, but they seemed to be in a state where the two of them had shared the aphrodisiac inside it.
‘He drugged them with aphrodisiac and threw them in.’
I had briefly explained the situation to Lilith, but these two were sacrifices and a message sent by the baron.
Not only had they been captured, they had also had words written on their bodies by Baron Gilbert before becoming prisoners.
From the baron’s perspective, they were people he could afford to lose—a pair of men and women whose disappearance would not matter, and whose fate could be smoothed over without much trouble even if someone raised an objection.
‘I told him to send useless trash so that he could dispatch people without worrying about it, but I didn’t expect him to send genuine bottom-of-the-barrel trash.’
One of them was a prostitute.
But I was not sure about the other—the man.
‘Judging by the missing little finger, he looks like some back-alley thug.’
Where there was a red-light district, there was an underworld.
Judging from the condition of his little finger, it had not been severed recently. It seemed to have been gone for quite some time.
A misunderstanding?
Or a certain conclusion?
Either way, their fate was the same.
“Trainer. What do you intend to do after they finish having sex?”
“What do you think I’m going to do?”
When I answered her question with a question of my own, Lilith grew flustered.
“I, well....”
“I’d like to hear your opinion.”
“Do you mean I should say what I would do if I were the trainer, instead of trying to guess what you would do?”
“Exactly.”
In truth, I had meant the former, but Lilith spoke so seriously that I decided to go along with her.
“If it were me... well.”
Lilith watched my expression before saying—
“...I would keep them alive for the time being and extract information from them, or use them as a message to Baron Gilbert.”
“I see.”
“...Do you have something else in mind?”
“Yeah.”
“You really intend to hide aphrodisiac inside their bodies and send them back...!”
“Is there any reason we can’t?”
“.......”
Just in case, I asked Lilith in a slightly forceful tone.
“...No. It’s nothing. If you have no qualms about it, Trainer, then I will follow whatever method you choose.”
Ah.
Could she be worried about me?
“But, Trainer, you do not need to force yourself. As your secretary—”
“Are you saying this because you’re worried I might go soft on the humans?”
As I approached Lilith and asked, she pursed her lips and swallowed.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going soft. Just because they come from the same bottom-rung, lower-class life as I do doesn’t mean I feel sympathy for them.”
“.......”
“Relax. Before I am a human, I am the trainer of the Vampire Legion.”
When I lightly patted Lilith on the shoulder, she let out a sigh of relief.
“Understood, Trainer. Then, their disposal will be....”
“We should kill them.”
“.......”
Killing them was, in fact, the more merciful option.
“The baron sent them for us to dispose of. If they are not trash that can be recycled, then disposing of them according to the secret pact is the correct thing to do.”
Keeping them alive might cause even more trouble.
If they had been people I knew, I might have felt a little sorry for them, but they were nothing more than that.
“Record the marks on their bodies, either by preserving them with magic or taking a rubbing on paper. Once they finish having sex, dispose of both of them.”
“Understood.”
“And while you are at it....”
I took an aphrodisiac from my pocket.
“Make it so they waste away from aphrodisiac addiction without even realizing how they ended up here. Pour more aphrodisiac into them, have them keep having sex, and let them die.”
“...Trainer.”
“What?”
“...It is nothing. Heh heh.”
I wondered why she was looking at me as though I were some merciful person.
After all, aphrodisiac would be coursing through their entire bodies, eventually flowing through their blood as well—
“Ah. No, wait.”
Punishment in the Vampire Legion meant drawing the blood out of one’s heart.
“If we saturate them with aphrodisiac and draw out their blood, then that blood would be....”
Aphrodisiac-infused blood would be complete—
“.......”
“......No. Never mind. Dispose of them as planned.”
The hearts would be extracted as food for the vampires.
The corpses would be disposed of through the slimes.
‘One shouldn’t play around with food.’
* * *
A short while later.
The two prisoners went far away, still wrapped in each other’s arms.
They left behind a single final message—not quite a dying declaration.
– Person. Adventurer. Substitute. Prisoner. Released with aphrodisiac.
‘Nobles really do use unnecessarily complicated words.’
The message.
The interpretation.
Baron Gilbert intended to maintain our state of hostilities while offering adventurers as sacrifices and receiving aphrodisiac in numbers equal to the adventurers he offered.
‘Just what I wanted.’
For me, it was the best possible scenario.
‘As expected, high-ranking adventurer virgins really are better than whores or the loose sluts of prisoners.’
The higher the rank of the adventurer, the more likely they were to be virgins—and Eris was proof of that.